"Puzzles......................."

“Fecundity” is a term encountered in that Annie Dillard book, my dictionary enlightening me as to it meaning “fruitfulness” or, in my own words, “reproduction to the point of staggering the imagination”. Mostly the condition applies to insects, thousands of eggs, perhaps, hatching only to be eaten by each other, the mother, herself, or any number of predators looking for a good meal. The author addresses such subject questioning why the Creator would so formulate their existence. Someone else, no doubt, might suggest “survival of the fittest” for an answer, birthing a plethora of offspring guaranteeing, at least to some degree, that a few will live long enough to ensure the species continues. Enough for me to note here that, God being God, we can find mystery in this in almost any direction we might want to look… One of the basic doctrinal tenets we profess to believe in Pentecost is “speaking in tongues”, a condition defined as both “a gift of the Spirit that often is manifested during a church service” and also “a state entered into during prayer or worship wherein one’s speech becomes garbled, the Holy Ghost one with us in what comes forth, a pure praise coming right up out of our innermost depths”. The first, it seems to me, has been misused and abused. The second is one of my most treasured possessions, it reaffirming again and again my connection with him having in no way suffered loss due to my lack of common sense. Explain it beyond that? I don’t think I can… A crane of some sort, on the wing, caught my attention this morning, me driving to school and it a rare sight in this neighborhood. Several years back, there was one that frequented the creek by our house, foraging for food where the shallow waters pass under the bridge. I happened upon it twice. Was this the same one? Who knows? The sight of it, though, given to me for but a few seconds, was almost sacred, a bit like reaching “through the veil” and briefly touching the hem of His garment. We will never solve the enigma in its entirety, not in this life and I’m betting not in the next one either. We can, however, know Him in as much as Christ “in” me. How much is really up to us……